Smart Manufacturing

Factories have long held a place in the popular imagination, not just as sources of employment and community prosperity, but also as hectic, noisy, grimy and polluting facilities, where thousands of people are employed in largely low-skilled line positions. Today’s factories are changing. Breathtaking advances in technology, automation and globalisation are transforming how and where manufacturers plan, construct, operate and integrate their factory networks. They are also ushering in significant operational, political and societal changes. From America’s Rust Belt to rural India and China, a chorus of voices is struggling to understand: how are technologies changing how we produce and distribute products? Are automation and free trade taking away valuable factory jobs? What type of skills will be required? How can communities prosper in the face of new production technologies? How and when should manufacturers upgrade their legacy equipment to embrace new technologies to boost yields and efficiency for advantage or simply to remain competitive? Businesses, governments and society alike must understand the technological dynamics at play and collaborate together to ensure tomorrow’s factory towns prosper. What will the factory of the future look like? The key answers will come from the factory floor where new technologies like 3D printing, advanced robotics, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, wearable devices, and virtual and augmented reality are converging to create new value, enabling the hyper-efficient and flexible factory of the future. The value created is real: large global producers have increased efficiency and reduced costs by up to 30% across all operations, driven by improvements in overall operating efficiency, lower inventory, energy and water costs, and reduction in incidents involving safety. While the pace of change and how these changes will propagate across networks will differ by industry and country, the factory of the future is a more digital, virtual and […]

LBT Innovations has made its first international sale of an artificial intelligence instrument, which it claims could revolutionise the global medical laboratory industry. Based in Adelaide, South Australia, health technology company LBT Innovations told investors this morning that it had made its first overseas sale of the APAS Independence instrument, which scans the contents of petri dishes and uses an algorithm to detect bacterial colonies from medical samples. The technology incorporates computer vision to hasten the time required to detect infections in samples from patients. LBT Innovations CEO Brett Barnes told local news site InDaily the technology had the potential to automate a process that is currently conducted manually at medical labs across the globe, and that it is faster and more accurate than microbiologists at making clinical diagnoses based on the samples. The sale to German clinical laboratory Labor Dr Wisplinghoff, announced on the ASX today, is only the company’s second, bringing in about $330,000. But Barnes said there was a potential demand for the product spanning about 2000 laboratories in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, and that this relatively small first international sale was an indication of things to come. “It’s a big, global market opportunity for us,” said Barnes. “As a singular transaction … what it really signifies (is) confidence that the technology is being adopted. “We’re at the start of a global commercialisation.” Barnes said that the technology, developed with the University of Adelaide in 2015, eliminated one of the more mundane and tedious processes from the daily workflow of a microbiologist. “This isn’t a play of putting a profession out of work,” he said. “It’s an efficiency gain (that) frees up microbiologists for more value-add activities.” He added that a clinical trial involving 10,000 patients had demonstrated the technology’s accuracy and speed.

Rockwell Automation’s new regional director, Anthony Wong is very engaging. He has an easy laugh, but a serious undertone that lets you know he is here to do business. Recently appointed as regional director of automation giant Rockwell Automation, Wong has big shoes to fill in departing MD Scott Wooldridge. Not that he’ll have to look far if he needs the odd bit of advice – Wooldridge is now the company’s regional vice-president for Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. Wong, an electrical engineering major, brings experience from both the software and hardware streams of automation. With more than 24 years in the industry, he started out as customer support with Citect, before graduating to sales engineer, then account manager through to sales director. In 2006, Schneider Electric purchased Citect, which opened new opportunities to Wong, including a five-year sojourn at the company’s headquarters in Paris, France, where he had several roles mainly in the strategy, merger and integration sectors. Just under three years ago, he decided to come home where he worked for Schneider until taking up the Rockwell Automation position in July this year. As well as the usual challenges of the role, there are several other reasons the new job was attractive to Wong. “What attracted to me to the role is that Rockwell Automation is one of the most respected companies in the automation space,” he said. “I have always been in the industrial automation space, and with Rockwell Automation being purely a player in that space, that was definitely one of the things that attracted me to join the company. He said another reason was that Rockwell Automation has moved into addressing the digital space. For him that was signalled when the company took an 8.4 per cent stake in Internet of Things […]

By Mac Ghani, Managing Director, Avanade Australia From digital transformation to climate change, every industry is trying to keep up with the pace of change and reinvent processes for a more sustainable future. When a manufacturing business successfully transforms itself, customers and employees will benefit from: Increased efficiency and output through data-driven process optimisation and visibility; Reduced downtime and increased asset utilisation through real-time monitoring of assets and predictive maintenance analytics; Increased agility of supply-chain planning via real-time visibility and process controls; Improved worker safety and injury prevention by detecting and responding to changes in field conditions and worker vital signals; A future-ready manufacturing business also has the capacity to create a positive environmental impact – using digital innovation, data and insights to drive efficiencies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enable smarter energy management and reduce waste. The MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) finds companies that substantially complete their transformation tend to enjoy margins 16 percentage points higher than their industry’s average. A new beginning Despite awareness about the need to innovate and the commitment to invest heavily in technology over the next three years, research found the manufacturing industry continues to lag behind companies in other industries. With tougher socio-economic and environmental conditions, personalisation and a dynamic workforce, it can be incredibly difficult to understand where to start or how to progress further. In fact, 60-70 percent of organisations are still on their journey. Manufacturing is a traditionally siloed industry. But a future-ready organisation gives due consideration for impacts across the business, so open communication and evaluation throughout the process is key. Digital transformation belongs to the whole organisation, not just the CIO. Key decision-makers from all parts of the organisation need to put forward priorities of each business division. These priorities need to be aligned […]

Datalogic’s latest IMPACT software enhances performance and traceability for vision-guided robots and cobots. Datalogic, a leader in robotics, Industry 4.0, automatic data capture and process automation, is introducing its new Impact 12.2 software to further enhance the traceability and ease-of use of vision-guided robots and cobots used for a wide variety of pick, place and other vital production line tasks. The new robot guidance and traceability software is available throughout the Asia-Pacific region and incorporates a number of calibration and performance enhancements to make robot programming faster and simpler, as well as improve accuracy and traceability. “With Datalogic’s Impact 12.2 system, robots can now be deployed faster, and they are more adaptable to changing applications in dynamic industries such as warehousing, logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, transport and OEM markets,” said Mr Bradley Weber, Product Marketing Manager – Machine Vision, Datalogic. “The latest software has been thoroughly tested in conjunction with leading robotics company Universal Robots and has been fully approved and UR+ certified to work their robots and cobots. UR+ certification means they have the full technical support and expertise of the Universal Robots team, as well as access to their highly customisable software,” said Mr Weber. Collaborative robots, or ‘cobots’ work harmoniously with people in production and distribution operation such as pick-and-place and production lines. Often, the robot performs repetitive tasks requiring strength or precision, while the person guides the robot to the right place, provides a part for it to pick, or performs other tasks that complement the robots programming. According to Universal Robots, “Cobots give manufacturers access to all the benefits of advanced robotic automation, without the extra costs associated with traditional robots: difficult programming, long set-up, and shielded work cells. This makes automation affordable even for small-batch production runs and mixed product assembly.” Software […]